I cannot tell a lie - seven times....

[hardee]

Right On Dave:

Cottonwood is not worth burning.

I burned a chunk once. It took me 4 canisters of propane in the torch. And it took me about 3 days to dig my splitting maul out of it after I pounded it in with a sledge, trying to get a 2 foot piece to split. Barried 2 wedges into that thing as well. Worked best to split it after the temperature was down to 10 above for a week.

NEVER accept cotton wood from a wood hauler. It's more work than it is worth.

Harvey
SleepyC :moon

 

[Sea Wolf]

Right On Dave:

Cottonwood is not worth burning.

I burned a chunk once. It took me 4 canisters of propane in the torch. And it took me about 3 days to dig my splitting maul out of it after I pounded it in with a sledge, trying to get a 2 foot piece to split. Barried 2 wedges into that thing as well. Worked best to split it after the temperature was down to 10 above for a week.

NEVER accept cotton wood from a wood hauler. It's more work than it is worth.

Harvey
SleepyC :moon

A wood like that must have some redeeming properties, considering it's fiberous nature and toughness to split, etc.

Maybe it would make good Beaver Dams???

Joe. :lol:

 

[oldgrowth]

Warren - unless you get it your-self, it is hard to get a woodcutter to deliver a particular type of wood. You usually get what they have a permit for or are able to steal. Ash usually grows near wet areas (swamps and low river banks). Often a wood cutter will think he is giving you Maple when it is actually Ash. Ash is a lighter color than Maple but has similar bark. Maple grows just about everywhere.

Any wood you burn, make sure it is thoroughly seasoned and completely dry before you burn it. For the best results, stack your wood loosely so air can circulate through it. Do not cover it, allow it to season for five months (April through September). Cover the top, not the sides just before the Fall rains begin.

I stack my wood off the ground between two metal fence post with a wire across the top to keep the post from spreading out. I cover it with a piece of metal roofing with slots in it for the post, so there is a three inch overhang all the way around the wood.

Roger - I am not sure my job now, is easier on my back. Too much setting.

You shouldn’t need a splitter for your Fir firewood. If the wood is split within a few days of it being cut, it will split easy. The longer the wood sits the harder it is to split, until it is well seasoned, then it is easy again.

Split it from the top (the end that was up when it was growing). Always split it through the heart of the wood (the center of the growth rings). Don’t split it where there was a limb. Look for a crack in the wood (sometimes it is hard to see, but if you look close enough, you will always find one.) The crack will always be near the heart of the wood and it will not necessarily be straight. It may have a slight angle change at the heart.

Use an eight pound mall and hit it on the line or an extension of the line, on the edge farthest from you. Don’t hit it in the middle. If the round is large, you will have to create a split line by hitting it again towards the center, keeping the cut lines straight (one behind the other). If the split line you found is not straight (it changes directions at the heart), the next hit has to change directions just like the split.

These hits do not have to be hard, but they should be hard enough to leave a definite cut line in the round. You loose too much accuracy when you try and bury the mall in the wood and you wear yourself out.

Now go back to the first place you hit and hit it again in the same spot. The round should start to open up. It may take another hit to completely separate the two halves. On the smaller rounds, go ahead and just give them one hard hit in the middle and they should come apart.

A 75 foot Doug Fir will be around 14 inches BDH (diameter at breast height) and have around a quarter of a cord of wood in it.

________
Dave

 

[oldgrowth]

Jay - I remember the first cord of wood I sold back in 72. I cut down small and medium Alder trees and carried them to the side of an old road, then cut it into firewood lengths and split it. It took all day to get a cord of wood. When I started, I thought it would be a good way to make some extra money. After that first cord, I figured there had to be a hundred ways to make extra money, that is easier than cutting firewood. That was the only cord of wood I sold until I bought the firewood processor. King TV (channel 5) in Seattle came out and did a news feature on us when we were in the fire wood business. I believe it was 1987 or 88.

Harvey - green Cottonwood is a net consumer of heat. Just about all green woods will burn and continue to burn once you get them hot enough, with the exception of Cottonwood. It takes more heat to burn than it will put out. Once it is seasoned and dry it burns too fast. Cottonwood is mostly water. When it is green, it very heavy. When it has dried out, it is very light. Some firewood cutters try and slip in some cottonwood with the firewood they sell. The bark looks somewhat similar to Maple, but if you look at the cut end, it is easy to tell the difference. Maple will have a smooth cut and Cottonwood will have small fibers or feathers on the cut end.
________
Dave

 

[hardee]

Dave, You are right on about the Cottonwood. I had about 4 pieces, 3feet across, slipped into a load on me. It was replaced after some "discussion" with the wood cutter. I learned a lot about Cotton wood from those 4 pieces. 3 of them were still there when the same guy came to sell me wood next fall.
Warren,Don't know if you can find them in Washington, but there is a device called "The Oregon Wood Grenade" that can be of some help in the splitting process. It's an aluminum cone, about 10-12" long as I recall, and about 3-4" in diameter at the top. Made of aluminum so that it would be softer, and not splinter when struck with the back side of that 8# splitting maul Dave mentioned. It is designed to be placed into the heart of the round, and then driven into it. Though it doesn't result in precise 1/4 or 1/2 splits, it generally would split anything in just a couple of good whacks. (Anything except that stinkin wet cottonwood. I buried that rascal clear to the hilt plus. think I got about a gallon of water out of that chunk of wood that day. I finally got the grenade, and 2 wedges out after it froze down to about 10 degrees for a week.

Anyway, gotta go, Montego Bay is calling me. Oh, one other thing, splitting wood can result in flying pieces and sharp edges. I'd keep good gloves and boots on, and watch the eyes, (covered).

Harvey, crusin on 800 ft of non-C-Dory :roll:
SleepyC :moon

 

[Da Nag]

No practical experience here, but I did read about a stacking method a while back that some folks swear by for green wood...it's called a Holz Hausen, and its proponents claim it results in significantly faster drying time.

Here's a link to a forum thread, complete with pics.

Here's a link showing how to build one.

 

[Pat Anderson]

Unless, of course, you are completely without wood, the power is out for eight days, and your gas furnace has decided to die at exactly the same time...THEN you will stuff anything that burns in your Russian fireplace...green, wet, rotten, whatever...we left not a twig ungathered over five acres to get through that one...anyway, here it is November, did not lay in a supply. Reminds me of the Olga Symphony song "Firewood."

Any wood you burn, make sure it is thoroughly seasoned and completely dry before you burn it.

 

[oldgrowth]

No practical experience here, but I did read about a stacking method a while back that some folks swear by for green wood...it's called a Holz Hausen, and its proponents claim it results in significantly faster drying time.

Here's a link to a forum thread, complete with pics.

Here's a link showing how to build one.

Bill - there is no doubt that system is good for drying large volumes of firewood. The initial stack is good for shedding water but as soon as you use the first row on top the rest of the wood will soak up any water/rain that gets on it unless you design some type of cover for it.

Most of us cut and stack our wood over a period of several months and with the Holz Hausen design the oldest/best seasoned wood is on the bottom and the least seasoned wood is on top.

To solve the above problems, you have to handle the wood an extra two times. Stack it in the circle so it can dry, then move it some place and stack it again, so you can cover it to keep the rain off and use the oldest wood first.

If your wood is stacked in rows, none of the above are problems.. Stack the wood loose. For proper air circulation the wood should be stacked so a squirrel can get through it but a cat cannot and the rows should have four to six inches separation between them. Rows are easier to cover. Once the wood is used from one row, new wood can be added to that spot.

If your wood is 16” long and the stack is five feet high by ten feet long, you will have ½ cord. Four feet high by twelve feet long and you have ½ cord. Both these stacks are easy to cover and as you use one stack it is easy to start a new stack while not covering or blocking the old wood.
________
Dave

 

[rogerbum]

I had some pro's come out and drop a big Douglas fir tree that was about 6-8' from the corner of the house. I thought they were going to take it down from the top but the guy with the saw said he could drop it in the yard. In my album, I posted some photos I took of the tree being dropped. What incredible judgement and precision. My lot is triangular and the tree was dropped right down the longest part of the triangle. In the first image below you can see the tree just before it comes down. In the far corner of the lot you can see a small dogwood tree and a bush. The top of the tree fell precisely 6-12" short of both of those. No measurements were taken before he fell the tree - he just eyeballed it and said it would fit.

On the right side of the photo are two oak trees. The tree came down just to the left of those and broke only one branch. Here's the sequence of the tree coming down.

 

[El and Bill]

Another factor about cottonwood trees -- don't camp under them! The limbs split off easily in a strong wind. Lost a friend of mine, in the Grand Canyon, under a cottonwood tree in a thunder storm. When we paddled down the Missouri River, we camped in the open away from the cottonwoods lining much of the upper river -- seemed anti-intuitive, since one sometimes thinks of 'shelter' under a tree, when camping.

 

[rogerbum]

So I bought and 8lb maul and started splitting wood today. I paced off the tree and it was about 84' tall. Since it had been previously topped, it was a bit thicker than Dave's estimate. The base was about 24" across and I'd estimate it was 90-100 years old by a rough count of the rings. Now here's the problem I'm having. I'm trying to follow your wood stacking directions :

<stuff clipped>
If your wood is stacked in rows, none of the above are problems.. Stack the wood loose. For proper air circulation the wood should be stacked so a squirrel can get through it but a cat cannot and the rows should have four to six inches separation between them. .
________
Dave

It was easy enough to catch a cat - the neighborhood is full of them. He wasn't too pleased but after a few bites and a dozen or so scratches, I confirmed that the cat wouldn't fit through the holes in the pile. The squirrel, well that was a LOT harder. It took me the better part of the day to trap a squirrel and he wanted no part of me trying to shove him into the wood pile. He was putting up quite a fuss - biting, scratching and making the strangest noises. Fur was flying everywhere and he kept putting his little squirrel arms and legs out to prevent me from using him as a wood pile space tester. Eventually I got a small wooden dowel and some duct tape and with the duct tape I attached the squirrel to the dowel. Once that was done it was easy enough to confirm that the wood pile was stacked loosely enough. Is that how you professional wood cutters do it?

PS - where do I go to get a rabies shot late on a Sunday night?

 

[oldgrowth]

Roger - your mistake was trying to capture them by hand.

Use two live traps. Release both animals at the same time by your woodpile.
If the cat catches the squirrel outside the pile, it is stacked too tight.
If the cat catches the squirrel inside the pile, it is stacked too loose.
If the squirrel survives, the pile is stacked properly.

When you were describing the tree, you neglected to say it was topped. When I saw the photo, I realized it had been topped and estimated it was about 24 inches in diameter. It looks like it has a dogleg about where the limbs start.

You should get around a half cord from the tree. It will be easy to split because of the lack of limbs on much of the lower trunk. I don’t remember if you said you have a chain saw. If you do and it is big enough, I will tell you a secret to splitting the really difficult parts, like the dogleg.
________
Dave